Day after, 2 teachers who ‘tortured, caned’ teenagers arrested

A day after three boys, all aged 14 years, drowned in a river while trying to flee from their school hostel in Virar near Mumbai, the Valiv police on Thursday arrested two teachers of the Vagda Gurukul International School for allegedly torturing the trio mentally and physically for scoring low marks.

Police identified the suspects as Ripusudan Shivkumar Garg and Sandeep Janya Palva. Garg teaches Sanskrit at the school and Palva is a physical training teacher, the police said.

They have been booked for voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons under section 324 of the IPC and abetment to suicide of a child under section 305 of the IPC, along with relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice Act. The two were presented before the Vasai sessions court on Thursday and remanded in police custody till September 1.

The police said on Wednesday, Suresh Chadwa, father of 14-year-old Meet whose body was found in the Sukh river near the school premises lodged a complaint in the case.

Meet and his two friends who were students of Class IX, had fled the premises of the school through a hole in the boundary wall which took them to the river bank on Monday night. As per the statements of Suresh and the other seven classmates of the boys, the Sanskrit teacher had allegedly caned them on the palms for scoring two and four marks out of 20. The teacher had also threatened them that they would be caned again on Tuesday and this prompted them to flee the school, the police said.

The other seven boys have told the police that they had been caned by Ripusudan on Monday. “Another kid in the same class has told us that the teachers had caned them previously as well. We have recorded a statement and registered a separate case,” said senior inspector S B Mane.

The police have also recovered the cane allegedly used by the teachers.

Meet, along with Prahul Narayan Patel and Kushal Nilesh Dadha – all students of Class IX at Vagad Gurukul International School in Virar. They had gone missing on Monday at 8.30 pm. The police had registered a missing case on Tuesday. However, on Wednesday their bodies were found in Sukh River.

Dr T P Lahane, dean at the state-run JJ hospital where the bodies were taken for post-mortem, said, “The bodies were decomposed. The hands had bruises indicating that they were beaten up but there were no bruises on any other body part. We have asked for a forensic test at Kalina’s forensic laboratory.”

He added that the cause of death was yet to be ascertained and a forensic report is awaited, said Lahane.

Sukh river drowning: ‘We tried to stop them, but they had fled the premises’

Nine boys from class IX of the Vagad Gurukul International School had attempted to flee, but when the physical training teacher Sandeep Palva apparently tried to stop them, six of the boys retreated while three boys fled, police said.

The six boys, in a statement to the Valiv police, said Meet Suresh continued…